Roy Behnke

Trained first in Islamic Civilization at the University of Chicago and in Social Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Ph.D. 1975) He has worked on research and development of extensive livestock production and rangeland management for over 30 years.

Roy has served as a civil servant in three African governments, as the editor of a journal "Pastoral Development Network" at the Overseas Development Institute, London, as a free-lance consultant to international donor agencies, and as a research scientist. In addition to short-term assignments, he has undertaken field research for extended periods in Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

His major research contributions include analyses of pastoral market involvement and the shadow pricing of subsistence livestock production, transaction-cost theories of indigenous pastoral tenure systems, and the ecology of grazing systems in areas of low and erratic rainfall.

In 1993 he was the lead author of the book "Range Ecology at Disequilibrium: New Models of Natural Variability and Pastoral Adaptation in African Savannas". Overseas Development Institute, London. This book has been cited more than 800 times in academic publications as well as often quoted in development literature, and has become influential in the subjects of desertification, range management and pastoral development. His other work has been cited more than 1,400 times.

While maintaining an interest in semi-arid Africa, current research focuses on the decollectivisation and commercialisation of pastoral production in ex-Soviet Central Asia. From 2000-2004 he headed a 3 year European Commission INCO DEV project, carrying out interdisciplinary research on rangeland desertification in Kazakstan and Turkmenistan and was co-director of an EC-funded collaborative research project on the impact of fencing on Tibetan nomads, livestock and pastures in four provinces of western China from 2006-2009.

Arrows may not center when in edit mode. Once site is published, the arrow will be centered on the tab